SBP taps American scout to help Baldwin, Gilas

MANILA, Philippines -- Top honchos of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas has tapped an advanced scout, who has access to all the basketball games in the world in a bid to aid Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin with two weeks left before the Fiba-Asia men’s championships in Changsa-Hunan, China.

Baldwin said Mike Schmidt, an advanced scout based in the United States, has been gathering the pieces of information Gilas needs as it tries to study the rest of its opponents in the Fiba-Asia cage joust, which will also serve as regional qualifier for next year’s Rio Olympics.

“We are assembling all of that (scouting) information now. We have taken on an advanced scout. His name is Mike Schmidt, who comes out of the US,” Baldwin told Philstar.com.

The Gilas mentor said he has not met with the American scout, who is expected to work at the background while feeding them the necessary basketball information they need as they shoot for the gold in China.

“You won’t see him but he’ll work entirely on the background. He has access to all that we need. His methodology on compiling that access into scouting report is state of the art,” he said.

“Thank you to the bosses of SBP and the MVP Group for securing that resource for us. I’m really excited for what Mike will provide for us.”

While awaiting the final scouting report, Baldwin said Gilas is scheduled to fly to Mandaue, Cebu next Monday for a six-day training camp as they wind up their pre-Fiba-Asia preparations.

“We’ll go the camp in Cebu and stay there from the 14th to till the 19th,” explained the veteran international coach.

“We will try to refine everything and make sure everybody’s peaking physically. Then, refine all of our systems and probably add some things in that will be new for our key opponents in the tournament,” he added.

Although the Jordan national team will be in Manila starting next week, Baldwin is non-committal on playing a scrimmage game with the perennial West Asian powerhouse, which is currently mentored by Rajko Toroman.

Toroman previously served as Smart-Gilas’ head coach from 2008-2011, guiding the Filipinos to a semifinal stint in the 2011 Fiba-Asia men’s championships in Wuhan, China.